Housing Needs: Young People

John Whitby Excerpts

Thursday 16th April 2026 Westminster Hall

[John Whitby (Derbyshire Dales) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I thank the hon. Member for Mid Dunbartonshire (Susan Murray) for securing this important debate. Young people face challenges with housing in every part of the country, and in rural communities such as Derbyshire Dales there are compounding pressures of exorbitant prices, high rents and a lack of access to jobs and public services. I have heard from many constituents, whether parents or young people, who fear being priced out of the communities that they grew up in.

As in all areas of the country, house prices in Derbyshire Dales have risen significantly in recent years, far outstripping local wages and leaving many young people unable to buy—and increasingly unable to rent in the few available properties. The challenge of affordability is exacerbated by the supply challenge we face, especially in the national park. There is a clear and ongoing need for affordable housing, especially homes for social rent, but it has to be in the communities that need it, not just where big developers will make the most money.

Some villages in the national park are crying out for housing, most clearly where ageing populations see declining numbers enrol at local primary schools. Without affordable housing and additional investment in transport links and connectivity, there are few pull factors for young families or professionals. In many areas we also see the impact of high numbers of second homes and holiday lets: they make up a quarter of all residential properties in some villages in my constituency, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service. It is therefore a struggle for the number of new builds to outstrip the number lost to second homes and holiday lets.

In the parts of the constituency that sit outside the national park—and I am sure this applies right across the country—we regularly see developers try to wriggle out of their obligations to build affordable and social housing. We end up with yet more four-bed and five-bed properties because that is presumably where the big bucks lie, but that does little to help our young people get on to the housing ladder. We need a mix of housing but it has to include starter homes, affordable homes and social housing. It is clear that young families are being squeezed out. Time will tell whether more action on second homes will be required, beyond the doubling of council tax and the increase in stamp duty. We need action on empty properties. We need to increase the housing supply, of affordable housing, in the communities that need it most and we need to invest in the services and connectivity that are needed.

[Andrew George]

The hon. Gentleman raises once again the issue of second homes. He is well aware that the Liberal Democrats have proposed a change in the use class system to introduce a new use class for non-permanent occupancy. The introduction of such a thing would allow local communities to limit the number of second homes. It could be used as a tool to control expansion of the number of second homes and holiday lets.

[John Whitby]

I would be more than happy with local authorities having the capacity to limit holiday lets and so on—that is not a bad idea at all.

It should not be too much to ask that a young person can live in the community that they grew up in.